Generally speaking, the Premier League manager of the season award goes to the boss of the title winning side.

If not the league winners, a team that have challenged at the top end of the table and enjoyed an exceptional year, perhaps punching above their weight such as George Burley's Ipswich in 2000/01 or Alan Pardew's Newcastle 11 years later - both awarded the crown after guiding their team to a fifth place finish.

And then there was Tony Pulis and Crystal Palace. Only once in the history of the Premier League has the award gone to the manager of a team who finished outside the top five. In 2013/14, Palace didn't even finish in the top half!

But such was the scale of Pulis' challenge when he took charge at Selhurst Park - Palace were bottom with just four points - leading them to comfortable safety and an 11th place finish was seen as the stand-out achievement in the same season Brendan Rodgers went so close to leading Liverpool to the title.

If that Liverpool side had a cavalier style then Pulis is often tarred with the brush of adopting a cautious, safety first approach.

But, according to Sean Dyche, the man who may well join Pulis on the plaque of that Premier League manager's trophy if his Burnley side continue to defy doubters, there's nothing wrong with a winning style of football.

A Pulis banner at Crystal Palace (Image: Getty Images)

“Do you want the beauty of football or winning? I’ve not met a fan yet who wants beautiful football that loses," said Dyche, ahead of a game against West Brom, then managed by Pulis, last season.

“I remember a Premier League manager about 10 years ago said: ‘We might go down, but we’ll go down playing the right way.’

“As soon as I heard it, I thought: ‘Stay up playing the wrong way.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”

A reputation that's 'annoying and disappointing'

As for Pulis himself, well he bristles at the idea of him being a one trick pony.

“It’s annoying and disappointing that people think I just keep clubs up," he said in the April of 2015 - after taking charge of West Brom and, yep, you guessed it, guiding them to safety.

"It’s a compliment in some respects and something you work very hard over a period of time to achieve to get that recognition. But what I get frustrated about is that everybody talks about me never being relegated, nobody talks about the fact I’ve been promoted out of every league in England."

He'll certainly prove himself as more than just an escape artist if he leads Boro to promotion this season, having taken charge halfway through the campaign and with Boro languishing way lower than where they were expected to be at this stage.

'Pundit frustration and the shelf-life of a manager'

Down in the second tier for the first time since 2007/08, when he led Stoke to promotion, Pulis is away from the glare of the Premier League and all that comes with it. Only last month, when under-fire at West Brom, he spoke of the growing number of player-turned-pundits - "too many" - and how that ramps up the pressure on bosses.

Not that he pays too much attention to them.

“I never actually listen to it,” he said. “At half-time I usually go out and have a cup of tea then come back and watch the football.

“As a manager, you have to be that single minded. I think Fergie once said you’d be chucking yourself off the edge of a cliff every other week (if you listened to it).”

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Tony Pulis reaction

When Garry Monk took charge, he purred about the possibility of working on a long-term project. Pulis, you feel, will focus on the immediate future.

“Society is changing all the time and it is moving further away from what we had years ago where you could go into a football club and you could have five, six, seven years,” he said in the final stages of his West Brom career.

“I don't think that is relevant now. Things move so quickly.

“I am not talking about people at the bottom of the league neither. I am talking about people at the top of the league too.

“You have seen what happened with Mourinho at Chelsea – winning the title and three or four months later leaving the football club. Nobody thought that would happen but that is the way it is.

“It is moving that way and there is a shelf-life there for everybody. I don't think you will see anything like Sir Alex at United for 28 years. Wenger will be the last one to do that.”

'Work ethic and enthusiasm'

There's no getting away from the need to graft when Pulis is in charge.

In November of last year, only three teams had covered more distance than his West Brom side.

And he practices what he preaches.

During his time in charge of Crystal Palace, the BBC had set up a feature in which they were due to spend the day with him at the club's training ground. Ahead of a scheduled meeting time of 7am, a reporter text him at 6am to double check he'd be in and ready for them so early in the morning.

"Already here, in the gym," he replied.

Tony Pulis on the touchline at the Riverside (Image: Getty Images Europe)

And his work ethic was contagious.

"Tony just brought such enthusiasm to the place," said Palace's assistant kit manager Danny Young.

"His work ethic is completely out of this world. We're all in at the crack of dawn because he's here to go to the gym. That sort of enthusiasm rubs off on the rest of us.

"I started here a week before Tony and you could feel a little bit of tension because results hadn't been brilliant. But there was a massive difference from day one and it gave us an extra lift. It's been a great few months and now the place is buzzing."

There's been no word as yet as to who will join Pulis on the coaching staff at Boro. It will be interesting to see who he brings with him and how his coaching team is made up.

'Everything rolled into one'

In that same interview with the BBC, Pulis told of how there's more much more to management than picking an XI for 3pm on a Saturday.

"A manager today is not just a coach, he's a psychologist, he's everything rolled into one," he said.

"You do have to convince the players that they are good enough because there are so many knockbacks at this level and they have to keep bouncing back.

"They have to be strong mentally, as well as physically, and they have to feel as though you know what you're doing and they buy into it. They've got to have that feeling that you're leading them the right way."

'Pulis' philosophy and his West Brom departure'

Pulis' man-management is said to be one of his stand-out attributes. We got an early indication of that with his clever compliment of Stewart Downing in his press conference after Bolton. Imagine how good Downing will have felt about himself after hearing that.

Players know their roles.

"Training isn’t about fun for him," said Peter Crouch.

"He doesn’t care if you haven’t got a smile on your face."

"There is a lot of shape and sometimes the players want to do more but he won’t let them because they have to be fresh for the weekend. That is his philosophy and it is what he has always done."

Peter Crouch (Image: PA)

At West Brom, there appeared a widespread acceptance that it was time to try something new.

Goalkeeper Ben Foster told of how Pulis was "almost a victim of his own success", but added: "Everybody knows the Tony Pulis style of football and now we have technically gifted players who want to get the ball down and show what they can do. It's not necessarily what Tony wanted, to be honest."

But he continued: "I'll always speak very highly of Tony.

"He's a great guy, and as soon as he got the sack I sent him a message to thank him very much for what he'd done for me and the whole club. It has come on in leaps and bounds. He has built the best team."

Middlesbrough's new manager Tony Pulis

The 'Tony Pulis style of play' is an interesting one. Pulis clearly feels there's more to his management than making his sides hard to beat.

Crystal Palace's co-owner Steve Parish agrees, though he too had initially bought into the belief that Pulis was blood, thunder and long-throws.

"I had some reservations," Parish admitted when looking back at his appointment of Pulis.

"There was a stereotype around Tony that he played the game a certain way and I frankly wasn't sure we had the players for us to play that way.

"But what he's proved is that he's not a one-dimensional manager. We don't hoik it up to the big man up front and play off second balls. He's developed a completely different style to what he had at Stoke based around the personnel he's got."

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish (Image: PA)

The personnel he inherits at Boro are talented. Too talented to be outside the top six in the Championship.

Now to get the best out of them and to belatedly make the rest of the league sit up and take notice, as they should have done early in the season.

To do that, he'll need to spark an improvement in results not too dissimilar to what he did at Palace.

As for the trophy he won that year, well that will end up on Pep Guardiola's mantelpiece come the end of the season. Nailed on.

Talking of Pep, he'll be glad to see Pulis back in work.

"I am really disappointed because I have a great relationship with Tony Pulis," he said after the now-Boro gaffer was sacked at West Brom.

"Every time we went against West Brom he was an amazing man, so gentle. Always, we would drink a good red wine. Hopefully we can do it again in the future."

Hopefully at the Riverside after a Middlesbrough vs Manchester City Premier League fixture next season.